Our cabinets were made by a local cabinet maker that works for our builder. The cabinets were delivered "raw" to our house and then finished on-site. I do not know what kind of original finish was applied to the natural maple but it was dispensed out of cans(think aerosol). From the moment we had the final walkthrough on the house, we questioned the finish on the wood. Some areas appeared to have no finish on them but we were told everything had been sprayed with several coats. Within 6 week of living in the house, the maple cabs and trim were starting to spot...white spots. The painter(different from the cabinet maker) returned to our home and did some sanding and more spraying. That looked OK for another few months but the problem returned again AND again. Eventually all of the window ledges were "white"...no finish left and very raw and damaged looking. We continued to complain to the builder who then turned the problem over to Sherwin Williams...the product supplier. Sherwin Williams sent a few cabinet doors to a lab and determined the problem was "product failure". A new contractor was sent in, did more sanding, and brushed all of the cabinets and trim with a lacquer product which made me assume the original products were not lacquer. Once again, it looked better but not great for awhile and then the finish began to disintegrate once again. At this point, we were so sick of this crap. The builder sent in ANOTHER contractor who supposedly specializes in restoration and we tossed out the idea of getting rid of the maple look and enameling everything. The builder went for it...not sure why...possibly because they truly had no idea what was wrong with our wood. And this new contractor told us it had been a terrible move for the cabinets to be brushed with lacquer. We then left our house for 2 weeks with no expense reimbursement(road trip for 2 weeks with 4 kids in a camper...that was fun) from the builder for the financial inconvenience but were hopeful we would return to something that looked nice and was durable. When we walked in the door after vacation, the work really did look nice until we started noticing things upon closer inspection. We have now had a few areas that have peeled down to the maple, the cabinet doors were not adjusted correctly so the interior hinges have put chips in the new enamel, the inside of our childrens' closet doors(bi-fold) doors were barely sprayed and the wood is showing through, the bottom edge of the bottom panels of every six panel interior door was missed with the sprayer, the baseboard is full of debris, AND THE LIST GOES ON. Oh yeah, we were told to pick out the kind of paint we wanted the house walls to be repainted with(necessary due to spraying)...no strings attached. We directed the painter to use Hirshfields Platinum Ceramic Eggshell(with microban technology). He screwed that up somehow and used this Top Scrub junk. At this point, we are on good terms with the painter and he is telling us he will return to fix anything we want fixed but I'm like...DUDE, we left you the entire stinking house for 2 weeks. Couldn't you get it right the first time? That is the story.

I have just put chicken in the electric skillet to fry. Flour coated, just like my mom used to make it. Corn on the cob and mashed tatoes. I am exhausted, and need some comfort food to see me through survivor. I worked all day and then went to the store after for groceries. I have had no food in the house since our electricity was out, and then I got a new fridge, but with DH gone all week, I saw no point in shopping and stocking the new fridge. This time of year in Texas, I can't trust the electricity staying on for all the storms, and I have thrown enough food out to feed an orphanage this month already. I hate that. A lot of condiment type food, but things that have to be replaced. i will surely sleep like a baby tonite. I missed last weeks survivor, no electricity, so I really look forward to it tonite. I just snuck a peek in the living room and DH is out like a light. Poor guy. Trin

You might want to check out this video on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vN18up1q2GQ It is a "product" video but its pretty informative. I have had some success removing sap stains by scraping off the bulk and then covering the sap with a cotton rag and running a hot iron over it to melt the sap so it will be absorbed by the rag. Sometimes news paper or brown paper bag works better than cloth. This same trick can work for candle wax too Woodrich-Brand offers a Timber Oil that is loaded with pigment and can really look nice but I prefer their Wood-Tux product in the Brown Sugar color on cedar. It has a rich bronze look to it. Their website says they only sell the Wood-Tux to contractors but I happen to know they will sell it to you if you call them. They will just tell you to be sure not to over apply it. It only takes one coat. Here is a link that might be useful: Woodrich-Brand

Hello everybody, Unfortunately, I am having a relapse triggered by a family fight I had today. As I mentioned in my first post, my relationship with my mom is not good and she is very disrispectful with my stuff and has thrown away very special things to me. Things that I really treasured. Today, I picked up a carped that my mom had removed almost a year ago. She wanted to throw it away, but the carpet was in good condition and I liked it, so I took it to a place to have it washed and storaged. Today I finally got it back home and put it behind a wall in my living room. It was well hidden and it wasn't taking too much room. My mom saw it and started acting like crazy and told me she was going to throw it away tomorrow. I got angry and she started telling me that I had my stuff all over the house, which is not true, and then mentioned that the fact I put my little dog's stuff, like his plate and little bones in the laundry room was a problem for her to. This made me get very angry and I went down the stairs because I wanted to make sure my dog's stuff were safe. suddenly, my uncle, who was at home for a visit, stood up and got between me and my mother because according to him he thought I was going to hit my mom, which is a terrible lie. He dared me to fight and I told him I was not going to accept his attitude in my house. Then he asked me to go outside and I said: OK. Let's go. Next, my brother showed up and my mom to avoid the fight. Then my brother told me he didn't want to fight because he was much heavier than me and that it was going to be easy for him. I said: Come on, let0's do it. And he refused it and said he loved me. Ever since my parents divorced he has interfered in many of my family's issues that are not concer of his and sometimes he has tried to act like the man of the house. Today was the last straw and made me lose my mind. He has brainwashed my mom several times, my mom almost always does what he tells her to do and of course, he usually takes my moms side. All this conflict made me have a psychiological crisis and miss my little dog a lot since I feel very alone again and I have no friend and partner at home to rely on. I really didn't need this since I was starting to feel better about the loss of my beautiful Guyton, to heal, to rearrange my life without suffering too much and feel more peace. On top of that, my Psychiatrist took the liberty to show my mom and my brother my diagnosis file after a visit my mom and my brother made to his office, which was a terrible violation to my privacy and to the confidentiality respect Mental professionals have to have. It's the most basic and important rule. Now, my mom is using this as a weapon and threatening me to send me to a mental hospital because my Psychiatrist also told her and my brother she could do that. It is just unbelievable. He betrayed me and put me in a very difficult position. Specially now that I am trying to overcome the death of my little dog and my mind is unstable. It just looks he also took my brother's and mom's side and they are their patiens not me. Now I am missing Guyton a lot again and their loss became bigger again too. I am lost and sad again. I really hope you can reply to me. Thank you very much in advance for your help and kindness